THE NEED FOR A PERSONAL TRANSACTION WITH CHRIST
J. Wright
Acts 26: 12–20; 2 Corinthians 4: 3–6
Paul, as he stood before Agrippa, was not only an apostle but he was a Christian. He was not born a Christian, and no one has been born a Christian. You may have been born into a Christian household but you were not born a Christian. Persons have their religions today and some are born into the religion they have, but you can only become a Christian by having a transaction with Christ. If you have been brought up in the degradation of this world, or have been brought up in a Christian household, or have been brought up among the elite of this world, you can only become a Christian by having a transaction with Christ. Paul loved to speak about the transaction he had with Christ. It changed his whole life, it changed himself, it changed the man completely. Earlier in this address to Agrippa he spoke of what marked him before, and we might have thought that such a person was outside the reach of God as one who caused Christians to blaspheme. But no one is outside the reach of God. The gospel is for everyone. God’s thoughts are for all men. We do not preach Calvinism, that is that there are certain persons to be saved and certain persons to be lost. There will be persons lost but God’s desire is that you should be saved, indeed it is His desire that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
If you are not saved, dear friend, you cannot blame God for it. His desire is that you should be saved. He has done everything possible that you might be saved. You cannot be saved on your own merits, or by your own works, or by turning over a new leaf and trying to do better, but you must be saved. The Philippian jailor said, “Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?”, Acts 16: 30. Have you ever had the exercise to be saved? Have you ever felt that you are a sinner before God, a hell-deserving sinner? You might say, I am not as bad as other men, I am not as bad as the drunkard, or the murderer; but you are a sinner, and I am a sinner. We know that, we have all gone our own way. We may not have gone as far as Saul of Tarsus went on his own way, but we have all gone on our own way. Every one has turned to his own way, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way”, Isaiah 53: 6. Persons who say that are repentant persons. They say, “Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all”. Who was that on whom the iniquity was laid? It was the Lord Jesus. I can say that He bore my sins in His own body on the tree. My sins will never ever come up again—thank God for that. Will your sins come up again? Will they come up at the great white throne? Will you be there? You might seek to cover them up, but God knows every one of them. Have they been borne by the Lord Jesus Christ? The work is available for you, and available for all, because the work that the Lord Jesus did at Calvary’s cross has satisfied God, and His righteous and holy claims.
There is not only what He did for you and for me, but what He did for God. God has been propitiated. You might say, that is a long word, I do not understand it. It means that God’s righteous and holy claims have been fully met by the Lord Jesus Christ; they have been met for God’s satisfaction. We read about the passover lamb yesterday. It says, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exodus 12: 13. The work of Christ has fully satisfied God. He has glorified God in the work that He has done, and no one else could do that work but the Lord Jesus Christ. God has testified to His satisfaction in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ by raising Him from among the dead. He has been raised by the glory of the Father. Think of the work that He did on the cross in bearing the judgment of God in those three hours of darkness. He exhausted God’s judgment against sin and sins in those three hours of darkness on the cross, but
the work was not finished. The judgment of God against sin was exhausted but the work of atonement was not completed.
The Lord Jesus had to go into death because death lay upon you and upon me. He went into it vicariously. He went into it in power; He did not go into death in weakness but in power. It was the judgment of God against the sinner, “the wages of sin is death”, Romans 6: 23. The Lord Jesus Christ entered into death. He died. It is a wonderful fact that He did die. Think of who He is in the glory of His person and that He should die for you and for me. He died to glorify God, and His precious blood was shed. There could be no atonement for sin and sins unless the precious blood of Jesus had been shed to satisfy God’s righteous and holy claims.
Then He went into the grave—that also was part of His vicarious work. Not only has the matter of sin and sins been met for those who believe, but it has been met to God’s glory and satisfaction. The sinner has been ended judicially in the cross of Christ! Think of man in his awfulness as exposed at the cross of Christ! Why was it a death of crucifixion—why such a death? It is the exposure of what man is, and that man was judicially terminated in the cross of Christ. The Lord Jesus went into the grave that that man might be put out of God’s sight for ever. Then He was raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father. Now He is at God’s right hand and the glory of God is shining in His face.
Have you had a transaction with Him? Have you ever turned to Him and prayed to Him?
Have you ever spoken to Him? He may have spoken to you many times. In Acts 26 Saul of Tarsus is recounting how the Lord spoke to him for the first time. There were things grating on Saul’s conscience. There may be things grating on your conscience—maybe you are resisting. You might not have done anything gross but maybe you have resisted His word. He would appeal to you again, “it is hard for thee to kick against goads”. It is hard for
you to resist; it is a call of grace. It is a tender call from the Saviour from His heart. Think what He has done for you. He is feeling for you, if you are going on in sin and self-will and you are not happy. God knows how to provide for your happiness better than you or I could.
Thank God He can make you supremely happy. The Christian is intended to be a happy person because God has made him happy. His happiness does not depend upon his circumstances—his happiness is involved in his link with a glorified Man at God’s right hand, a blessed Saviour, who has not only met his need but has satisfied and filled his heart.
What a Saviour! He filled the heart of Saul of Tarsus, he turned him right round. He said, “I saw, O king, a light above the brightness of the sun”—he saw the light and he heard the voice.
I am sure that light above the brightness of the sun would have conveyed warmth to him, light but also warmth. I remember reading an article in Mr James Taylor’s ministry where he spoke of how, as a young man, he went into a gospel preaching in Paisley and felt the warmth of divine love towards him. It says in Job that your garments become warm (Job 37: 17). The light is not a repelling light, dear friend, it is intended to convey to you the warmth of divine love. The love that was expressed so fully at Calvary’s cross is conveyed to you by the Saviour as He speaks to you. It is a voice of warmth, a voice of love, but it is a solemn thing to reject it. Saul did not reject it. He said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision”. He met with the help that came from God. He was turned round and he became a preacher of the gospel.
No one can preach the gospel effectively unless they know Christ; no one can be a Christian and a testimony to Christ without a conscious living link with Him. I am not saying your path will be a path of roses for it was not for Saul of. Tarsus. The Lord said, “I will shew to him how much he must suffer for my name”, Acts 9: 16.
It may be that we do not have the sufferings of the apostle but it is an honour to suffer for Christ. There were those who rejoiced that they suffered for the Name; they came under reproach. I speak feelingly because we do not like the reproach and may seek to evade it, but Peter says in his epistle, “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye; for the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you”, 1 Peter 4: 14. The Spirit has a complacent rest in a person who is under reproach for Christ. If you are under reproach for Christ and confess His name, you get the support of the Lord and prove His power. You might say, I am a poor weak thing. So am I, we all are, but there is divine power available and Paul proved that.
I want to speak of these things that he was told. The Lord says to him, “for this purpose have I appeared to thee, to appoint thee to be a servant and a witness both of what thou hast seen, and of what I shall appear to thee in, taking thee out from among the people, and the nations, to whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God”. There is no middle course. Which course are you on tonight, dear friend? Are you in darkness or light? If the light from the glorious Saviour has not yet penetrated into your heart you are still in darkness. The light is shining round you. It shone round Paul and those with him, but it also shone in. As the light would shine in it will dispel the darkness. It will dispel any wrong thoughts you may have as to God, any wrong thoughts you have as to Christ, any wrong thoughts you have as to believers on the Lord Jesus Christ.
The light that comes in will change your thoughts completely. You will see things as they really are.
Men are deceived today by all kinds of things. They are deceived by religion and by many other things. The light enables you to see things rightly, to see what you are in God’s sight as a sinner, but also to see the Saviour and the glory of God shining in His face. All
that God is towards you is seen in the face of Jesus. He says, “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God”. There is no middle course. You cannot be half and half, it is one thing or the other. If you are pursuing your own will you are under the power of Satan, and I tell you that he is no friend. Satan is no friend to you, he will not do you any good, he will deceive you into thinking you could be happy by going your own course. But you are under the power which Satan wields in this world, and you need to turn from the power of Satan to God. What a blessed thing it is to be under the sway of the blessed God. Paul could speak of the blessed God. He is a glorious God to know and to come under His sway. It is true blessing.
Then it says, “that they may receive remission of sins”. What a great thing that is, to receive the remission of your sins. It is not a partial remission, it is a full and free remission. Then it says, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”. There is an inheritance for you. How important it is to receive the Holy Spirit. You will never understand and appreciate what God has for you unless you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. These things are for all men. They are not for a select few. In God’s mind they are for all. This inheritance is for you to enter into and enjoy, an “inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”. It is a sanctified company who know and enjoy this inheritance. They have been delivered from the world and set apart for God. Do you know anything about this inheritance? It is there for you, dear friend, among persons sanctified by faith in Christ. If you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit you can know and enjoy this inheritance. You may not understand the scope of it all at once but it is there for you. Go in for it and enjoy it and learn more of it, the inheritance that God has provided for you.
I want to speak briefly of 2 Corinthians 4. Paul is speaking, “But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost”. There was no veil with Paul. There was no reason why persons should be lost because there was nothing to obscure the light shining through him. He says in the previous chapter that there was no veil on the face of the Lord Jesus. We look upon the Mediator with “unveiled face”. What a face to look upon, the face of the Mediator!
He is the Mediator of the new covenant. He would bring home to your heart the disposition of God towards you. What would be conveyed in the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus is the disposition of God and the love of God towards you.
There was nothing to cause a veil with Paul, but if the gospel is veiled, it has not yet reached into your conscience and your heart. Paul says here, “if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them”. It is shining forth, you cannot stop it shining forth, but if you do not see the shining it is because you have not believed in the glad tidings and the god of this world has blinded your eyes. It is a serious thing. Do not remain there, do not remain among the lost. It is a solemn thing to remain among the lost. Then he says, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord; and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus’
sake”. Oh, we preach Christ Jesus Lord, but we would desire to be your bondmen. We would desire to serve you, dear friend. If you are in soul distress, in soul need, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, but we desire to serve you. We are not here to get at you, we are here to serve you so that you might come into the full divine blessing.
He says, “Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine”. What light has shone out of darkness; what light shone out of darkness at the
cross, what darkness surrounded the cross. There was darkness over the whole face of the land, but what light shone at the cross. What light is shining in this dark world, for it is still a dark world. “Who has shone in our hearts”, not into our hearts. There was a shining in the heart of Paul, it shone in for a shining forth. Oh that we knew more of that. Oh that we were more a testimony to Christ, that the light is shining in for a shining forth in this dark world; that we might appear as lights in this crooked and perverted generation. It says, “who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. That is wonderful knowledge, to know the glory of God as it is shining in the face of Jesus Christ. May it shine in our hearts, may our course be brighter here for Christ, and may we come into the inheritance that God has so richly provided for us, for the Lord’s name.
Preaching at Manchester
17 September 2000